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OYRENUSWHEELER, JR., OF AUBURN', NWYORKVC l M P R OVfEM lENT I NF H ARVES-TERSE- Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 69,732, dated October' 8, 1867.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, CYnnNUs WHEELER, J r., of Auburn, in the county of Cayuga and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Harvesting-Machines;

and I do hereby declare the following to be a main frame madein two parts--viz., a fronty and rear part-and both hinged to and turning about the main axle as a common center, the front frame supporting the driver, and having the draft-bar or double-tree connected with it, and the rear frame carrying the cutting apparatus, a lifting-lever connected to the draft and taking against the rear frame, so that the power of the team in drawing the machine over the groimd shall also be applied, to a greater or less degree, to the raising of the rear frame, and preventing the finger-bar and cutting apparatus from dragging so heavily over the ground.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, l will proceed to describe the same with reference to the drawrepresents a front frame, hinged by its lugs a a to the main axle, or rather to sleeves or bosses on the rear frame B, -which rear frame is himg, by its sleeves or bosses b b b', to the main axle C, which is supported in the usual carrying and driving wheels l) D, so that, while in reality the rear frame and its appendages are drawn forward by the power of the team applied to the front frame, both frames have the axle C as their common hinged support, though not as their actual draft-supuort. l On the front frame are arranged the drivers seat E, the tongue F, one of thef lifting or locking levers G, the post H, for receiving and holding the finger-bar when folded up and turned forward, and, nally, a rigid 'brace or bar, l, to aid the gag-lever on the rear frame in throwing up the outer end of the finger-bar, cutting apparatus, Ste.

The rear frame carries and supports the footlever J, the gagging-lever K, the finger-bar L, and the several appliances by which said bar is raised up or turned, as seen iu the drawings:

The sleeve or boss on the rear frame, over which the lug a of the front frame passes, is long enough to receive and hold the hub c of a bell-crank lever, which has two arms, c c', upon it, one of which arms, c, is made long enough to catch under the rear frame B. To the other arm, e', is connected one end of a rod or bar, f,

the other end of which'is attached to a sliding head, g, on the tongue F, and to this sliding head g the team is hitched, by means of a double-tree, M, or otherwise, said sliding head being controlled in its movements by a guideplate, t', on the tongue.

When the power of the team is applied to draw the machine forward, the sliding head g moves forward, and draws upon the vertical (or nearly so) arm e', which, turning on its hub, brings the other or horizontal (or nearly so) arm c against the under side of the rear frame, and tends to lift up said rear frame, and the greater the draft or resistance of the machine, the greater is the lifting force applied to the arm c; and the power required to draw the wheels over or past any obstruction that suddenly interposes itself also aids to lift up the finger-bar to pass that obstruction, as the finger-bar follows closely after the wheels, though in a plane one side of them. The arm e is furnished with a series of holes, by which leverage upon it may be increased or diminished by moving the end of the rod out upon it, or nearer to its center of motion, as may be required. The lug` b of the rear frame passes directly around the axle C, the front or tongue frame not extending over to that point.

The hand and foot lifting Vand locking levers G J in this case operate substantially and identically as they do in an application filed simultaneously with this, and of which I am the assignee. l do not, therefore, in this ap plication, lay any claim to these levers or their operation.

l have described my lifting-lever as applied parts, and having' the axle, 0r its equivalent, as a eomlnon center of motion, a tivo-armed lever, to one of Jthe arms of which is connected the draft of the machine, while the other trans' mits the power 0f the team to the raising' np ofthe rear frame and its connected )arts, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

C. VHEELER, JR.

lVitnesses:

D. O. BAKER., SAMUEL LooKWooD. 

